Automatic enrolment thresholds 2016-17 30 March 2016
The 2016-17 automatic enrolment thresholds have been approved by parliament and come into effect from 6 April 2016. Only the upper level of qualifying earnings has changed.
The Automatic Enrolment (Earnings Trigger and Qualifying Earnings Band) Order 2016 comes into force on 6 April 2016.
The lower level of qualifying earnings and the earnings trigger remain the same as 2015-16, only the upper level of qualifying earnings has changed with an increase to the annual threshold to £43,000.
2016-2017
Annual threshold
Lower level of qualifying earnings £5,824 Earnings trigger for automatic enrolment £10,000 Upper level of qualifying earnings £43,000
Values by pay reference period 2016-2017
1 week Fortnight 4 weeks 1 month 1 quarter Bi-annual
Lower level of qualifying earnings
£112
£224
£448
£486
£1,456
£2,912
Earnings trigger for automatic enrolment
£192
£384
£768
£833
£2,499
£4,998
Upper level of qualifying earnings
£827
£1,654
£3,308
£3,583
£10,750
£21,500
Automatic enrolment: alternative quality requirements for defined benefit and hybrid pension schemes 30 March 2016
From 6 April 2016, contracting-out will end. Employers will no longer be able to use the existence of a contracting- out certificate as evidence that their scheme satisfies the relevant quality requirement.
Guidance has been published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on the alternative tests of scheme quality for defined benefits and hybrid pension schemes used for automatic enrolment.
This guidance is primarily for employers’ advisers, who have been asked to determine whether a defined benefits scheme or the defined benefits element of a hybrid pension scheme is a qualifying scheme for automatic enrolment. However, employers may find the guidance helpful. The law requires employers to automatically enrol their workers into a scheme of sufficient quality. From 6 April 2016, contracting-out will end. Employers will no longer be able to use the existence of a contracting-out certificate as evidence that their scheme satisfies the relevant quality requirement. Scheme quality must instead be demonstrated by comparing the scheme against the test scheme standard, as set out in the legislation and guidance below or by applying one or more of the alternative quality requirements set out in the legislation and to which this guidance relates.
Automatic enrolment: Guidance on the alternative quality requirements for defined benefits pension schemes and the defined benefits element of hybrid pension schemes
Workie helps employers engage with automatic enrolment 5 April 2016
The latest research into employers’ and intermediaries’ awareness of automatic enrolment shows that 79% of employers remember seeing or hearing at least one of the campaign adverts while intermediaries who have seen the adverts found them relevant and memorable.
CIPP Policy News Journal
25/04/2016, Page 348 of 453
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